Jewelers Upbeat About January Sales

RAPAPORT... Whoever considered the holiday season over might need to
think again: Many jewelers are seeing just as much business during January as
they witnessed during the Christmas period, if discussions on a popular
social-media forum are anything to go by.

Customers are still visiting stores, and not only to
redeem gift certificates and get their purchases repaired and resized,
according to several of the more upbeat participants in the 15,000-member
Facebook group Jewelers Helping Jewelers.

“Anyone else off to a wild start? January’s lookin’
like Xmas 2.0,” said one group member (emoticons removed) in a post that
prompted a slew of comments over the weekend.

The responses weren’t all positive, but many said the
holiday momentum had continued, or even picked up. That’s after an earlier
thread on December 22 produced a more sober consensus about the season.

“Just got back from holiday vacation and backed up with
orders. Yeah! The holiday that keeps giving,” wrote one respondent. Two said
they were still seeing Christmas-like numbers, while one claimed engagement
season was still going on. (That roughly ends on Valentine’s Day, according to
unofficial definitions.)

“I literally asked my wife when Christmas would be over,”
one joked.

Another added: “Crazy January so far for us! I’ll sleep
when I’m dead.”

Some were frustrated that most of their income was from relatively
low-value exercises such as simple watch repairs.

“I hate this week because you get all the resizing,
returns that you have to take apart and put back in the showcase, and then all
the small diamond replacements from the micro-prongs that are falling off,”
said another.

However, such January jobs can be lucrative, as one
member pointed out after forfeiting a rare free Saturday to show a client the
results of a large repair project.